Gluten-Free Sourdough Starter

{From Adrienne – If you love sourdough like I do, but you’ve done on a gluten-free diet, I have the perfect treat for you.

A recipe for Gluten-Free Sourdough Starter. I’m convinced the gluten is a big health concern for many, but I still love good bread. And while this flax bread is one of our favorites, I‘ve been thinking about sourdough a lot since I found out that I can tolerate fermented foods.

We LOVE the tangy flavor of sourdough and I’ve been meaning to try my hand at making a gluten-free sourdough bread. Thanks to Tiffany of Don’t Waste the Crumbs, I am now that much closer to my goal :)!}

In order to prepare myself for this post, I wanted to put myself into the shoes of someone who is gluten-free.

When most people think “gluten-free,” they think that bread is no longer an option–particularly breads like sourdough.

So in order to be able to empathize with them in their struggle to balance nutrition with their allergies or intolerance… I did some “research”.

Basically I wanted to think about what it would be like to be gluten-free.

And I realized how much I would miss it if I weren’t able to eat bread like this on a regular basis.

I’m not trying to rub it in anyone’s face – quite the contrary! I know how fortunate my family is to be able to eat whatever we want without breaking out in hives or keeling over in digestive pain.

It saddens me to imagine what it would be like to:

– not be able to walk into my kitchen and slice off a piece of bread whenever I want
– to request the waiter to remove the basket of bread instead of refilling it
– to worry about being sick for days because someone accidentally contaminated a cooking spoon!

I understand your pain.

That’s why it truly brings me joy to share with you a way to have your cake–er, bread–and eat it too.

Gluten-free sourdough, baby. Oh yeah.

Imagine capturing wild yeast out of thin air and cultivating it over a period of several days so that without any help at all, it will magically make dough rise and become a beautiful (and relatively inexpensive–) gluten-free loaf of bread.

It really isn’t as hard as it sounds!

But it is incredibly healthy! Quite possibly the healthiest bread you can make!

The Benefits of Sourdough

Sourdough is:

– easier to digest
– contains the healthy gut bacteria lactobacillus (the same major player in yogurt and kefir)
– most of the phytic acid is broken down and
– won’t cause a spike in blood sugar like traditional bread often does.

Gluten-free vs. Regular Sourdough

Making a gluten-free sourdough starter isn’t any different than making a regular sourdough starter.

– Both start with flour and water.
– Both take a few days and both get bubbly.
– The only real difference comes when you’re ready to make sourdough bread and you have to pull out all the various types of gluten-free flours.

Gluten-free sourdough starter can be made in as little as seven days using gluten-free flour, water and a medium-sized bowl. I personally have successfully made gluten-free sourdough starter with brown rice, but I’ve read others have had success with white rice flour, teff, sorghum or even a gluten-free all-purpose blend.

Gluten-Free Sourdough Starter

Step 1. Combine 1/2 cup of flour (whatever gluten-free flour or blend you like) and a scant 1/2 cup of filtered water in the bowl.

Whisk until smooth and cover with a plate, leaving approximately 1/2″ gap for air to circulate.

Step 2. At least twice a day for the next six days, at regular intervals, add 1/2 cup of flour and scant 1/2 cup of filtered water to the existing starter.

This is called feeding the starter.

You do need to watch your starter carefully.

Here are a three of the most common things that you might notice and what they mean:

Too Much Starter – If after a few days the starter begins to outgrow the bowl, pour some off to make a batch of sourdough pancakes. Leave at least 1/2 cup of starter in the bowl to continue feeding.

Liquid At the Top – Liquid may or may not collect at the surface of the starter. Either case is normal. (FYI: the liquid contains more lactobacillus and gives the bread its sourdough taste.)

No Bubbles – If you do not see bubbles at the top or at the sides of the starter, add a third feeding. Try to keep the feeding intervals equal. For example, 6am, 2pm and 10pm are all equally apart at 8 hours.
Another option is to add one to two tablespoons of water kefir, dairy kefir, kefir whey or kombucha in place of the water to for just one feeding. Since you are adding more bacteria “goodies” to the mix, you are boosting fermentation action.

Like Adrienne, I am fortunate to be blessed with readers who are willing to experiment alongside me. I’ve been working on sourdough for the past month and collectively there’s a lot of helpful tips and ideas to be read. Read the body and comment section of these posts if you run into any problems make your starter. There’s a good chance your issue has been discussed!

Instead I’ve collected a variety gluten-free sourdough bread recipes for you to experiment with. Because in all honesty, all sourdough breads – with or without gluten – are an experiment. A tasty experiment you can top with butter.

Keep in mind that every recipe will be different, calling for different types of flour and possibly using yeast. I’ve included several sources so that everyone can find the one that suits them best!

(Note: A few of these links are affiliate links. If you click on them and make a purchase, your price will not change, but I might make a commission. Your support is greatly appreciated and helps me keep providing this free resource to you :)!)

(Adrienne here again. I think this is fabulous and a great jumping off point for tons of healthy creativity in the kitchen. I can’t wait to work on Gluten-Free Sourdough for my family. It would be great topped with butter (if you can eat it) or Homemade Nut Butter. Mmmmmm.)

Tiffany is a frugal foodie, balancing the desire to feed her family healthy food while being a good steward of her finances. She realized it was possible to eat nourishing, traditional food on a budget if she made baby-sized changes in the kitchen. She continues to work hard at mastering real foods without going broke and shares her journey at Don’t Waste the Crumbs.

I am excited to see that many (if not all – didn’t look at all of them) of the recipes didn’t need eggs. It has been so hard for me to find a decent GF bread that doesn’t have eggs. It must be the nature of sourdough bread to not need them! I am so excited to try this. My highly allergic 2-year-old has thrown fits because he can’t eat bread. Maybe this will be a bread the whole family will love! Thanks

Hello I have tried so many Gluten free bread recipes and none work very well. They taste okay on the day but the next day is as hard as stone. I would love to have a good gluten free bread recipe for my kids. Do you mind sharing?

In all my research of GF sourdough, I have not seen anyone use almond flour in the starter. There could have been a recipe or two that used it or even coconut flour in bread, but I can’t say for sure. I wish I had a better answer for you! ~Tiffany

I am looking for a coconut starter recipe. How much water to flour? Do you put anything else in it? The stuff is stiff, because coconut flour soaks up so much water, but I know with baking you shouldn’t add all that water. Does anyone have a recipe?

I am gluten intolerant. I went without any bread or baking for about 10-15 years, then decided to try making my own sourdough with ancient grains, (varieties of wheat that have never been cross-bred or hybridized by man. It is man that made gluten indigestible to Humans). But something you need to understand is that in the fermentation process of the sourdough, the gluten (proteins) in the wheat are broken (digested) down into amino acids, so the body doesn’t have to do it. (Our cells can not use protein for energy. The body has to break down the protein into amino acids before it can be be absorbed & utilized by the cells.) So if your sourdough is well fermented, there really is no gluten in it. Plus, these organically grown, ancient grains are rich in trace minerals (that conventional wheat lacks) and these minerals are very readily absorbed by the body, because there is no conventional yeast in the bread to block their absorption. I have served my sourdough, made with Red Fyfe, or Spelt wheat to many gluten intolerant people, and they’ve had no negative side effects!

Hi there. I have been talking about sourdough and gluten with other bloggers, and apparently those who are seriously gluten intolerant are apparently not OK w/ these home fermented breads. Apparently re-creating the exact fermentation environment to remove enough of the gluten is almost impossible. But I am for sure open if you have other information :). Please share.

I’m a Holistic Health practitioner. I Trained in nutrition after I reversed my Systemic Candiasis. I just wanted to be able to help others with this problem, which conventional medicine doesn’t recognize. As I said, I was without any kind of wheat for about 10 years before I started the sourdough. And now, my experience with some of my clients is that if they can go totally wheat -free for about 3 months to get it out of their system, and heal their colon, then they can re-introduce the ancient grains, very slowly (occasionally).
I feel that if your colon is in trouble (I don’t care what “diagnosis” the medical system labels it with) You need to eliminate all inflamatory foods (wheat, non-cultured dairy,corn, caffeine,and all chemicals -that is, eat all your foods as close to the way God gave them to us as possible), -for at least 3 months (or more… -depending on how strict you are, and how you feel about life (pain & anger are stored in the liver & colon) )
Don’t claim the disease as your’s. Give thanks to your colon for lessons learned, send it love, and give intent for a perfectly healthy body. Imagine yourself as if you were in perfect health, until you FEEL the perfection of it, -the freedom that comes with it… When you put that energy out to the Universe, that’s what it will bring back to you. (link removed..you can look up abram hicks)
I sent an attatchment with my sourdough recipe, and what works for me. There’s also a sprouted grain recipe in there, and I can’t seem to open it to remove that recipe, so… But I allow my sourdough to culture as long as possible to digest the gluten, in fact the loaves are ussually fallen (hollowed out instead of round) by the time I bake them.
Hope this helps,
Judy

Mmm. Perhaps for people who are just mildly intolerant or just “feel bad” off gluten, the sourdough method would work, as I understand many develop intolerances because of the hybridized wheat and the generally abysmal standard American diet. However, for people with Celiac disease, simply eating sourdough is not enough. I had had digestive issues since I was a teenager, and as an adult I began eating a whole-foods, Nourishing Traditions type diet, eating organic fermented, sourdough, and sprouted grains. My digestive issues all but went away. My stomach/gut felt the best they had since I was a kid. Then, after severe post-delivery complications after the birth of my daughter and recurring bloodwork showing I was malnourished and so severely vitamin deficient that I had to get shots (on a whole foods diet!), I was diagnosed with Celiac disease. So even though eating sourdough/sprouted grains/ferments cleared up my symptoms, I was still damaging my gut, predisposing myself to cancer and had to be completely gluten free. I would certainly not go back to eating (sourdough) gluten even if a health practitioner told me I could.

I was just about to comment that just because you digest it with no issues doesn’t mean it isn’t causing damage! And as a fellow celiac I know digestive troubles are not the only troubles wheat causes.

I hope you do not feed those with celiac your bread. Our immune systems respond rather than our digestive systems. The digestive symptoms are only a few of many, and even the smallest amount of gluten can cause inflammatory damage to many areas of the body aside from the intestines.

Judy, how can I get ahold of you to get some recipes ?Would you mind ? I LOVE the advice you gave about NOT owning your disease….its so true !!! my email is sblakley@cogeco.ca I am looking forward to hearing from you !

The recipe above is for the starter only. There is no cooking or preheating or anything for the starter – just room temperature and time.

Each recipe linked to should have more specific instructions on what to do with the starter once it’s ready. For example, using it to make pancakes, which really are delicious.

Ideally you would want to save 1/2 – 1 cup to continue feeding after you use it in a recipe. Simply continue feeding as you had been and it’ll continue to grow. It’s not the end of the world though if you happen to use it all – just start another. When you have a chance, check out the three links inside the recipe. There’s excellent information in those, as well as FAQ’s from readers too! ~Tiffany

In general, you can substitute sourdough starter for equal parts flour and water called for in a recipe. So if your recipe calls for 1 cup flour with 1/2 cup buttermilk, you can sub 1 cup sourdough starter, add 1/2 cup flour and let it rise to ferment the entire batch. The sourdough starter will replace acidic ingredients, so if you needed to add more liquid, you could regular milk instead of buttermilk.

In all instances with sourdough, it may take a few tries to find the “perfect” adaptation, but I think that’s part of the fun!

PS – I tried making a loaf using only brown rice starter and it did not work, and honestly, it didn’t taste good. I’d recommend adding a different GF flour to the sourdough starter to help balance out the taste a bit in your biscuits.

So basically you are saying that the starter replaces the flour amt and the flour will replace the buttermilk, right? Just trying to figure out why you are adding more flour to the starter instead of more liquid–or 1/2 and 1/2. Thanks!

The starter replaces both flour and liquid. In the example above, there’s a total of 1 1/2 c flour/liquid, but I reduced the starter to only 1 cup b/c the starter itself is wet and not completely dry. You’ll likely have to add more flour (for a total of 1 1/2 c) to get a more biscuit texture. If you added 1/2 cup liquid, it would be more like pancakes. If you subbed 1 1/2 c starter, it would still be too wet for biscuits… Does that help?

That’s the thing – there is no “one standard” way to convert regular recipes to sourdough because all sourdough starters act differently and all recipes are different. I read several different methods, and while all have different specifics, they all have in common substituting some or all of the flour/water with the starter.

From my own baking experience, I thought 1 cup would be a good starting point. Since it’s less than the total amount, it allows some wiggle room to add both ingredients in order to achieve biscuit texture, and is in fact what I would do if I were trying this myself! Most biscuit recipes call for flour, liquid, salt and butter – and they’re fairly a stiff dough. If she starts out with a full 1 1/2 cup, she may have to add a significant amount of flour to get a stiff dough, and then it may be too much flour to liquid for taste purposes, then you need more butter, salt, etc. 1 cup just seems easier for a first-time, experimental recipe.

Also, it’s a good amount for biscuits for the average family dinner when first attempting, plus if it turns out to be an utter fail, you won’t be wasting tons of money on ingredients. Also, one cup is a great number to work with when experimenting. After the first batch, it would be easy to tweak, knowing you only need 1/4 cup less/more per se of starter in order to achieve the consistency you want.

Hi!
I’ve had great success making a GF sourdough starter (though I started with purple cabbage leaves to give the wild yeast a boost) and the subsequent breads. One thing should be noted when it comes to how “bubbly” the starter is. Very heavy flours like buckwheat will not really bubble. I used all buckwheat to feed my starter and it smelled fine and got the “hooch” on top, etc, but mine didn’t really bubble or dome, and I wondered if it was okay and was really fermenting properly. Finally, I read that very heavy flours like buckwheat will not bubble. I started feeding the starter occasionally with arrowroot or brown rice flour, and it lightened up the starter, and I did eventually get bubbles. Maybe my experience will save someone from throwing out a perfectly good non-bubbly starter

Thanks so much. I have a severe wheat allergy and cannot even smell bread baking without having an asthma attack. I love sourdough bread, and I used to make a stew that was served in a bread bowl. I can’t wait to eat sourdough bread again. And sourdough pancakes, too. I think I’m a little giddy just thinking about it.

Mine smelled bad too around day 3 – like rotten eggs. I thought for sure something was wrong, but I persevered and by day 6, it’s smelled as it should. Keep feeding and I think you’ll be fine. If it STILL smells bad by day 7 (including all the right feedings), then I’d toss and start over.

Hi Chrissy! I personally have tried with buckwheat, but it appears that other commenters have and have had success. Lisa mentioned (in another comment) that buckwheat is heavy and the starter may not bubble or done, but will still be fermenting properly. Good luck!!

So my understanding is that generally, depending on the specific strain of lactobacillus, they will typically die off once temps reach over about 145*F. So if you’re baking bread at around 350*F, I’m pretty sure they’ll all die off. So how can it contain lactobacillus? Sorry, I’m pretty heavy into bacteria now, making cheese, Kefir, and sourdough, and I’m trying to learn all I can.

Bread is typically done at 220F, and if the assumption that Lactobacillus dies at 145F, then it would not survive the baking process. However, the bacteria has already done its job by then. 😉

The bacteria is always live in the unbaked starter. It’s what provides the tang, grows the yeast and helps to break down proteins (including gluten). If you’re looking for ‘live’ cultures, kefir or cheese or yogurt will be your best bet. But you still get the positive ‘side affects’ of the work from the culture (although not the culture itself) in baked sourdough goods. Does that help to clarify?

I am curious about the lack of yeast in the starter. You really don’t need any yeast? I’ve been having a lot of health issues for years with no apparent answers. I was finally diagnosed with severe Candida albicans. After a 3 month diet to rid myself of the candida, I’m realizing that I am, at the very least, gluten sensitive. I am SO excited to try out this sourdough starter! My mom used one when I was little to make bread and pizza dough that were delicious!

You’re right Joy – you really don’t need yeast! If your starter is fully active, and you follow the directions of a recipe (that doesn’t include yeast) as written, your bread should turn out wonderfully! Good luck!

Thank you so much for the recipe. I have my first batch riding right now. I have a question after the initial starter is made. Do you put the starter in the fridge and feed it once a week or keep it out and feed it twice a day as usual?

“I’m not trying to rub it in anyone’s face – quite the contrary! I know how fortunate my family is to be able to eat whatever we want without breaking out in hives or keeling over in digestive pain.” They will suffer later in live!!!

“But it is incredibly healthy! Quite possibly the healthiest bread you can make!” Uhmmm no, not even close!

Sadly, everything coming from Corn, Starch, and all modern food, is causing Cancer, High Blood Presure, Cholesterole issues, and the 1.000’s other “Issues” that we as humans have, in the Western World! Go Natural, go back to your roots, and stop eating processed foods! It can be slow or fast suicide, but either way, the Western World, is eating them-selves to death, by eating something that aren’t food, like Potatoes!!! What people call Potatoes today, is containing 2 Starches, 80% Amylopectin and 20% Amylosis… Both of those are used in the chemical industry, as a thickner, in Glue, Lubricant, and to make Paper… Does that sound like food!? NO!!! And Rice and Pasta, contains up to 3 times as much Starch… Get back to your roots people!!!

I’m sorry you disagree with my viewpoint Ole, but perhaps I didn’t explain myself very well. My family doesn’t suffer from food allergies, and we are fortunate to not suffer immediate and severe reactions from eating a single slice of homemade bread or a tiny fraction of a peanut. In regards to processed foods, I’m sure you’d be pleased to know that our family eats minimal processed foods, and making homemade bread is one way we’ve eliminated unnecessary additives.

Just because a compound is identified in natural whole foods, plants and herbs and then isolated by scientists doesn’t mean that organic foods containing starches are bad. Avoiding modern corn and isolated starches is one thing but saying potatoes and rice aren’t food anymore is ridiculous. The food of our ‘roots’ includes dairy, which contains casein – also something that can be isolated and used as a thickener, glue, and plastic. Eat it in it’s original, raw and especially fermented state and all is well.

Hi, When you say leave air needs to circulate is that within the bowl? I have seen starter recipes that call for leaving the bowl uncovered so the yeast from the environment helps ferment the dough, so I’m trying to find out if covering is necessary. I don’t have a plate that fits well on the bowl I would use, so if it does need to be sealed, would tight plastic wrap work?
Thanks!

Hi Randi! Air needs to circulate from inside to outside the bowl, so you don’t want a seal that plastic wrap will provide. If you don’t have a plate, try a towel or a similar-sized lid, but leave it ajar for fresh air to move in.

Help please! I apparently overlooked the fact I was suppose to feed the starter at least twice a day. I only fed it once a day. I am on day six. Does this really matter? I fed once a day 1/2 flour 1/2water. Can I proceed and make a loaf?

Hi Lisa! It does, and doesn’t matter. You’re still creating a starter with a once/day feeding, but it will take longer for it to be fully active. So at day 6 with 1x/day, you should probably feed 2x/day for a few more days, or keep feeding 1x/day for longer to get it fully ready to leaven a loaf. It’s ready when the starter is domed about 2-3 hours after you feed it. Hope this helps!

We went GF over a year ago and it has been very good for us. We made all of the adjustments well. In fact I want to write a post about our experience going GF.

But the one thing we REALLY miss is an occasional piece of sourdough bread. To be specific, sourdough garlic toast! Thank you for posting this! I can’t wait to try it! My husband will do a happy dance for sure. I have all of the GF flours in my pantry. Although I’ve worked with yeasted breads, I have never made a starter, so here goes!

If I don’t use all of my starter and want to save it for later use how do I keep it from “dying”. I really want to start making breads again and it’s something that I miss since going gluten free. Seems like all of my bread that I tried to make wasn’t light and fluffy and sat in the tummy like a brick.

I’ve found recepies that use the starter to make cinnamon rolls and other breads that I want to try but I don’t want to lose my starter since I don’t want to make everything at once.

It’s great to see people using old-fashioned sourdough starter! It looks really bubbly and nice.

I have done several types of GF sourdough starters myself and I’ve discovered that they have much better flavor and sourness if you use sorghum or teff flour for the starter. There’s also a way to create the starter much faster – in just three days. Here’s a link if anyone’s interested:

I am looking for a coconut flour sourdough starter recipe, and the recipe to use the starter to make sourdough bread. Could someone please share the recipes with me!! Pretty please Feel free to email me at sassjackson@hotmail.com… Thank you!! ~ Sass

I made my first gluten free starter a couple weeks ago and it made exactly three delicious loaves of bread before it suddenly turned on me. Hours after my feeding and loaf, it developed a think white layer and by morning the surface was completely engulfed in white mold. I left it for another day just to watch it and the mold grew to nearly an inch thick at which time I tossed it. Any ideas as to what went wrong? The only thing that I did different was I transferred “Fred” (my started was named Fred) to another bowl and cleaned the container then transferred it back. Do you think he was mad at me for cleaning his jar?! I’m starting over today and want to avoid the white plague! Thanks!

LOL, I love that you named your starter Vicki! To be honest, I don’t know what caused the mold. I’ve heard from other bloggers that mold is normal (and you can typically scrape it off well and keep going), but strange that it occurred within hours and in a clean bowl. Maybe he was mad? Sourdough does seem to have a mind of its own sometimes. 😉

Thanks for this page and all the people posting. I’m trying to make a starter from a type of millet. It seems pretty certain now, it’s not going to ever create a dome. But I’m doing it in a jar with some screen on top, since it was already started before finding this.

As for the white mold invasion post before this… Your starter will produce ethylene alcohol, acetic acid (vinegar), and lactic acid. The latter two will lower the ph to try to fend off other invaders. Any change that occurs as long as the acid is established shouldn’t be that damaging. When you freshly add new flour you weaken the acid levels allowing a quick mold to overtake the yeast and beneficial bacteria. I’m actually scared of using rice flour as a starter since it’s a water grain that can easily contain some bad waterborne soil bacteria and molds. It could have been luck of the draw in the flour or a mold spore floating in your house. It’s best to go with rice from California for hopefully better harvesting and transporting conditions and lower arsenic levels. If you figure you might have more trouble you could try add a little vinegar to protect against foreign invaders.

Thank you for your reply Keith! I used Bob’s Red Mill GF All Purpose Flour, which is a blend of flours and beans. I had been advised by another to poor off an excessive amount of alcohol (or hooch). I am now nearly 3 weeks into my new starter (as long as my first was before it was overtaken by the white mold and there has been no evidence of the mold. I refrained from pouring off any excess hooch this time. Perhaps the ph was indeed the problem.

I can also tell you that this particular starter took about 8 days to dome. Many conventional recipes stated it should happen much sooner but I decided to give mine more time since I wasn’t using conventional flour. It produced a lovely , very sour loaf of bread for me today! Perhaps your millet flour needs additional time.

I’m happy to find your website! I love sourdough bread and have looking for glutnfree recepies for bread all overthe place. I have a batch of starter going as I write. Have been alternating GF flours when feeding, should be interesting can’t wait to make the bread in three more days.

I started with brown rice flour and after the second day it was really thin and watery, so I did the next feeding,day 3, with sorghum flour followed with coconut flour and then garbanzo bean flour for day three.
It’s looking good, nice sponge starting to develop.

Hi Nef. I am so sorry about that. Was it in ad in the middle of the post? If you wouldn’t mind sharing w/ me the browser you are on I can try to troubleshoot for you. Thanks! Oh- and are you on a mobile device? I am in the midst of working on blog updates so thanks for your patience.

Hi Christy – Good questions, and unfortunately I do not have any helpful answers for you! I haven’t heard of adding kombucha to a starter, only water kefir. I’m betting the starter is still usable, but personally I would remove the scoby and not add more kombucha as liquid.

My sourdough is giving me such a hard time! I’ve been through two starters, 3 loaves of bread and a batch of dinner rolls. Each time I have the same exact problem: the bread does not cook!. It forms a very hard crust and NEVER cooks through. I left one loaf in for 2 hours just to see what would happen. The crust became like cement and the inside was still gooey. On my second batch, the dough rose beautifully, and the loaf looked great inside the oven, but when I took it out, the crust had totally separated from the rest of the bread–or the goop, that is. The only conclusion I can draw, since I’ve done each bread dough recipe slightly differently, is that my starter is inactive. But the starter I’ve been feeding now, I’ve had for almost 2 weeks, and I’ve been meticulously feeding it with precise measurements, distilled water, and Pamela’s All Purpose GF Flour Blend. It still doesn’t really look like any of the photos of bread-ready starter that I’ve seen. I don’t know if it’s the flour (even though I’ve used it to create wonderful pizza crusts, pie crusts, dinner rolls, etc), or if I need to actually put my starter outside where it can thrive. We live on the Gulf Coast so it’s very humid and warm…HOT right now actually. What am I doing wrong here??? The kitchen is one arena where I always come out on top. Not so much with this dang sourdough bread!!!

From what I’ve run across in general searches on this today, distilled water is a bad choice for sourdoughs (and will kill even a regular sourdough starter – my start on the search was a friend pointing me to the following, telling me she wants me to try and make a gluten free sourdough starter for her, and it was noted here that distilled water is a -bad- idea: http://sourdoughhome.com/index.php?content=startermyway2 ) – the process of distillation takes out minerals necessary for the starter to survive, as the point of distillation is to leave you with water and *only* water.
Better options would be spring water or just filtered water, which will be lacking the added chlorine/fluoride/etc. but still have various other minerals in them.

If that doesn’t help, you may need to find some other type of flour, or buy a new batch – you could have one that could have had the naturally found yeast killed already.

This is why most women are fat. Bread of any kind is not human food. Women should eat protein, vegetables, fruits and nuts and seeds – not ‘bread’. Women are too fat now a days. I am female and do not eat bread and am about 14% body fat and in my forties (and I don’t eat bread).. Most women are waaay over that. This recipe is cool and all, but really women don’t need more fattening things to eat.

Hi there. I don’t totally agree with you. There is more and more info coming out about carbs being needed by some and that grains are well tolerated by some. Have you read about prebiotic resistant starch? I am just digging into this. Thanks and I would love to know what you think.

Yeah……carbs are needed by all…not by some I’d have to say. Veg and fruit are carbs…the rise in obesity, disease, cancer, etc. does coincide w/ the onset of modern agriculture…….grains/legumes…..just not human food, evolution of man, his diet. The digestive track of humans is carnivorous, not made for such stuff. Resistant starch? good if you want to eat it, not sure what it’s got to do w/ bread…….plantains, jicama, are res. starch, as well as non-human foods like beans…. The obesity problem in most of the world not just US…has gotten so bad, the if a woman is 20% body fat, she is considered ‘thin’ or ‘fit’, which is ridiculous.

Can’t condone grains, but it’s not the only cause of why women/men are so fat nowadays…lack of discipline and self control are big contributing factors. Take a look at the AHA’s criteria for cardiovasc. health and what percentage of Americans meet all 7…..it’s less than 1%. Yeah, most ppl. don’t need bread but good recipe for those that can’t do w/out….

Hi Lori. I for sure need to do a lot more learning about resistant starch. I think you would really love the upcoming Wellness Family Summit. I just met Dr. Alan Christianson this past week and he spoke about the obesity epidemic. I hope to type up notes soon. You would be very interested in them I think. His conclusions were different than yours and were based on very interesting research. I think you will really like it: and the trailer is sure to make you cry (well it made me cry :))… https://pd199.isrefer.com/go/summitreg/WholeNewMom/ (that’s a referral link)v

His conclusions are different than mine? Any doctor who says lack of discipline and lack of self control aren’t the main reasons for the obesity epidemic, and that grains are healthy, is not someone I’m interested in but thnx.

Hi Lori. I don’t know if you meant to be insulting but your tone comes off that way and I am just trying to be helpful. He gave an amazing talk about weight gain and adrenals and a study about it all and he made a very clear point that it isn’t like an alien came down and suddenly zapped our self control when obesity rates started skyrocketing. While I don’t think that he thinks that eating grains is a great option for everyone, I know that he thinks they are a valid option for many people. He just didn’t touch on grains during his talk.

I hope that I can get this into a post format for all of you – it was really incredible. Thanks again and I hope you stick around so you can read what he shared. Take care.

? Yeah I mean…..not interested….hearing ‘adrenals’…the reason ppl. most ppl., part. women are fat,is b/c they have no self discipline and self control when it comes to diet and exercise – not ‘adrenals’, whatever that means.

Don’t believe it? The AHA tells us so. It says that less than 1% of the US, meet all 7 criteria for a healthy cardiovascular system (regular exercise, proper diet, maintaining a normal body weight, etc.).

And yes, I do think most women are too fat and do not need to be eating bread. The article said share thoughts……..that was my first thought. Tired of seeing fat women everywhere.

I never said AHA was the ‘end all be all…’, I said 99% of people in the US fail to meet even their 7 most basic health criteria – 99% don’t exercise regularly, are overweight or obese, have high BP, have diabetes, etc.

Again, my point was that most women are too fat, and should not be eating bread. Ideally, women should be about 15% body fat, tops (they should only have 5% more than men). Bye!

Lori, what are you even doing in this conversation? It involves things that you yourself don’t wish to ingest. It’s none of your business if anyone else does, and frankly you sound like you have some body image issues that you might want to look at. Perhaps elsewhere……

Adrienne, you’ve been so kind to “Lori” but I would suggest to stop answering him. The hateful tone from”Lori” towards “fat women” suggests a misogynist is impersonating a woman in order to spread his hate on a page obviously populated by a large % of women. And as this thread is specifically to help people find a GF option for bread, why is “Lori -the-lurker” even here. If “Lori” doesn’t eat grains then why is he looking up GF bread recipes? “Lori” is just looking for an audience and hoping to get our reaction. Kind of like when teenage boys make dirty prank calls – they “get off” on the shock value. Adrienne, next time you see hateful anti-women statements (ie. “I’m sick of seeing fat women”) do not reply and direct any energy towards encouraging that person to continue on this thread. Let’s just ignore the hate until it gets bored and goes home. Thank you for being such a kind person. Now let’s get back on track and talk about this yummy sour dough bread!!!! ;D

Why be on this thread and ruining it for those who are seeking healthier options when “Lori” is anti-bread anyway? Time for that very offensive hater to get back under the rock his/her narcissistic personality belongs under. Those who use hate and prejudice (toward “fat” people AND women in general in this case) to belittle others in order to feel that they are more perfect (when they obviously have serious psychological issues/personality disorders) cannot be allowed to use their words to abuse others in a forum such as this!

Why did you, Adrienne, allow that hater to continue to make abusive comments directed at your other posters and those who seek this site for knowledge and growth? Do you agree with the poster on some level? Why did you chose to allow those hateful posts to even be there to continue to abuse even more women who begin reading this thread?

I am very disappointed in the lack of moderator judgment that has been displayed. Depending on your response to these questions, I and others may choose not to visit any part of your site in the future. My support is reserved for those who have the integrity to choose to eradicate abuse in all forms whether it is the perpetrator him/herself or the bystander that allows it and is just as responsible for allowing it to continue!

Being kind is a great virtue, however, the responsibility of a moderator to disallow abuse toward a site’s visitors trumps that in an online forum…ESPECIALLY a site aimed at those who are seeking growth and healing!!!

All of the comments came in at once and I personally have chosen to respond to ignorant comments rather than just deleting them – it sounds like you would prefer that I just delete them since they were replying to others and not simply direct comments to me, correct?

If so that is fine with me and I can go back and delete them.

Let me know your thoughts. I really appreciate your thoughts :). Most bloggers just delete anything negative and I have chosen not to do that – I felt that my responding to the person before approving was acceptable but if you think otherwise I will be happy to reconsider. Thanks again!

Thank you for your reply. My preference (and I am sure many, many more feel as I do) is to not allow abusively demeaning statements such as:

“but it’s not the only cause of why women/men are so fat nowadays…lack of discipline and self control are big contributing factors”

“the reason ppl. most ppl., part. women are fat,is b/c they have no self discipline and self control when it comes to diet and exercise – not ‘adrenals’, whatever that means”

“Again, my point was that most women are too fat, and should not be eating bread”

I HIGHLY doubt that “Lori” is a medical professional at any level. “Lori” is abrasively judgmental and mean-spirited toward both you and any of your viewers who are more than 15% body fat (which I am assuming is most) and my point is that by allowing this poster to insult your viewers have undoubtedly hurt the feelings and self-esteem of women who are purely seeking healing and knowledge from your site..

My understanding was that this string was supposed to be about learning how to make gluten-free sourdough bread….

It is about that….you would be surprised at the lengths some will go to insults folks – but it’s typically me they are after :). Would you like me to delete the comments? I am more than happy to do so and will be more careful in the future.

I just wanted to let you know that I disagree with Jen. As a woman and an obese person and a human being I don’t care for the ridicule and tone of the posts made by Lori and I feel nearly the same about the posts made by Jen. I appreciate your efforts to be courteous, to redirect, to inform, and even to call out Lori on rude tone. We benefit from grace so much more than from the total absence of the obscene. Let’s lift each other up in this journey! Many thanks for the info provided in this post and for all the commenters!

SOMEBODY HELP ME! SO frustrated with my sourdough starter. I threw the first attempt out, but my second attempt is doing exactly what my first did. I am using reverse osmosis water and brown rice flour. I feed it every 12 hours and let it sit at room temperature. By the end of the first 24 hours, it is bubbling and growing. This continues through about 48 hours. By the end of the 3rd day, it is still bubbling but not really growing. After that, it just looks dead. It smells right and tastes right, but their is no yeast. Is it dead? What am I doing wrong?

Is my starter supposed to smell horrible? It started out smelling pretty yeasty, but not has a sort of rotten/winey smell to it (I think wine smells rotten and don’t drink, so can’t identify the smell exactly). It is in a bowl in the corner of my kitchen, but I can smell it just walking into the kitchen. I covered it with plastic wrap instead of a plate, could that make the difference? It looks like your pictures, a nice dome on top with a more liquid layer underneath. But I just don’t know about the smell!

I started my starter 6 days ago, and just baked it into GF bread using Bob’s Red Mill GF flour mix. It is SOOO good! I have a question, though–I have a bunch of the starter left, even after making 2 loaves. How long can this keep on the counter? How often do I need to “feed” it? Do I need to move it to the fridge? Thanks for your help!

Hi! Thx for the starter recipe. I’m not sure if the gals who were having trouble with starters “dying” got things figured out – but I’d like to share my experience. At one point I lived in a house that had mould in the walls, and I couldn’t grow sourdough because those spores contaminated the starter every time. In another house in a very remote area at high elevation I was unable to capture any viable wild yeasts and I had to use commercial yeast to get a starter going. I’ve found the most reliable way to get an excellent lively starter is to add kefir. Happy baking!

I’ve been reluctant to try making gluten free sourdough bread because the gluten is what makes it chewy and rise so nicely. I might try this. One of the most common problems in creating a sourdough culture is that they do not stir it. A new sourdough culture should be stirred at least one a day, preferably twice a day. It needs oxygen to breathe and grow.
Stir your starter, it will love you.

store bought yeast rises a bread too quickly, not allowing enough time for the microorganisms to do their job of changing the composition of the dough like deactivating the phytate to release the minerals (like magnesium and zinc that are lacking in yeasted breads), So in this dough that is left out for days, it catches the wild yeasts in the air as well as microbes that make this bread so nutritious and do a great job of breaking down the gluten as well as many other health benefits.

Hi,
I haven’t try your recipe yet but I have tried to mix buckwheat flour and water but on the second day there is always mold on top of my sourdough. I have been wasting a lot of flour already. I followed a recipe that was saying that we should leave the sourdough starter for 3 days and then start feeding it but I have never been able to wait until day 3..

I am using Bob’s Red Mill all purpose GF flour made with garbanzo bean. I was discouraged by the results until today when I moved my rubbermaid bowl and it started bubbling like crazy. It was bubbling so much that it looked like it was at the start of a slow boil. I was ecstatic until I noticed a furry light grey mold on the upper edge of the bowl above the starter. It was growing on the residue left from stirring the mixture. I did transfer it (avoiding the mold) to a glass bowl and fed it again. It now has a dome to it. Because of the mold do I need to give up and dump this starter?

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